


Truth and Consequences

by sylviasplath



Series: Lessons on Revenge [3]
Category: The Following
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-13
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 16:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1611098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviasplath/pseuds/sylviasplath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan struggles to come to terms with what happened at the hospital and Mike tells him something that complicates everything. Later, Ryan and Mike find out what the consequences are for Mike's actions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth and Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Lessons on Revenge series. I have tried to make this as stand-alone as possible, but if you feel like you're missing something then you should read the rest of the series. If you're not comfortable with dubious consent, I suggest starting at What Was Necessary.
> 
> This picks up right where What Was Necessary left off. It is mostly AU but includes events from S2, just re-imagined.
> 
> Also, I apologize that there is no sex in this one but it just wouldn't fit into the timeline. I'll make it up in the next installment. :)

“Okay, so, um, let’s just – let’s just go over this one more time.”

The FBI detective that was questioning Ryan was a middle-aged, balding man that could only be described as mousy. He seemed unorganized as he flipped through the pages of the notebook in his hand, trying to find the beginning of his notes. The detective didn’t strike Ryan as someone who was very comfortable in the field and Ryan absently wondered who had gotten sick that day to cause this anxious little man to venture outside of his comfort zone. The man – Ryan couldn’t have remembered his name at gunpoint and had taken to thinking of him as Mousy – nervously adjusted his glasses and looked at Ryan expectantly, waiting for Ryan to tell his story again.

Ryan glanced over at Mike, who was standing next to Ryan and appeared to be bored with the entire conversation. Ryan sighed in frustration. It was late, he was tired and this had to be the fifth time he was telling this story. Maybe if it were the truth Mousy wouldn’t be asking him five times, but Ryan roughly pushed that thought away as he spoke.

“Luke had a knife. I arrived on the scene, Weston turned to me and Luke lunged at him. Weston fired in self-defense.”

“And what about the second man? Luke’s handler?” the detective asked, adding to his notes.

It was the first time that Ryan had heard about anyone other than Luke. He had no idea what the detective was talking about and gave Mousy a blank look. “’Second man?’”

“Ryan wasn’t here for that,” Mike took over smoothly. “Initially, I was alone. He had a gun, he pointed the gun at me and I fired.”

Ryan stared at Mike as he spoke. A year ago, he might have believed Mike’s story. But too much had happened since then and the hard tone in his voice and the cold look in his eyes gave him away. When Mike finished speaking he met Ryan’s gaze and Ryan recognized the challenge there – a dare to call him out on his lie. Ryan ignored Mike’s look, instead running a hand over his face as Mousy spoke again.

“Agent Weston, is this the, uh – is this the knife he had in his hand?”

The detective pulled out a knife in a plastic evidence bag. Ryan saw Mike glance at the knife, giving it a convincing once-over, before he answered the detective’s question.

“I believe so. Yeah.”

Ryan could see that Mousy was itching to continue questioning them but Clarke, who had been loitering at the edges of their conversation, finally stepped in.

“You can contact them through my office, detective, if you need anything further.” The tone of his voice told Ryan that Clarke couldn’t care less whether Mike had killed the two men in self-defense or not.

Ryan watched Mousy throw a dirty look at Clarke as he reluctantly moved away, but not before glancing at Mike again, suspicion evident in his eyes.

“Ryan,” Clarke began, drawing Ryan’s attention away from the retreating detective. Ryan saw Clarke glance behind himself to make sure that they were alone before speaking. “The only thing that we’ve discovered that might be of any use is a cell phone that we found on the man that tried to help Luke escape. It’ll take us some time to try and get anything out of it.”

Ryan nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Thanks. Let me know the minute you find anything. Unless you need us, I think we’re going to head out.”

Clarke nodded. “I’ll call you.” He walked off in the same direction that Mousy had, stopping to speak to another agent.

Ryan took a breath before looking over at Mike. “We need to talk. Not here, though.”

Mike glanced over at Ryan before nodding and following him out.

***

The two men made their way out of the hospital for the first time in several hours. It was dark out now and they had to weave their way through the dozens of police vehicles that were on the scene to find Ryan’s car.

Ryan held his tongue until the two men got into the vehicle, alone again. For a moment they simply sat in silence, the weight of everything that had just happened descending upon them both. Ryan was about to speak when Mike beat him to it.

 “Look at the resources this woman has. She busted into a government-secured hospital. How do you go up against somebody like that? She’s more calculating than Joe. So little regard for human life that she would seek out a man’s father and kill him. I don’t understand it. I try but I don’t,” Mike said angrily. He slammed his fist into the passenger side door and Ryan winced. He recognized the rage that was almost oozing out of Mike’s very pores. It was something that Ryan remembered all too well.

“It can’t be understood. We’re going to find them, Mike. We’re going to find Lily Gray and Joe Carroll.”

Mike was oddly quiet and instead of responding he turned his gaze out the window. Ryan studied Mike’s profile for a few seconds in silence before changing the subject.

“What happened with Luke’s handler? That mercenary that was killed.”

“What do you think happened, Ryan?” Mike turned from the window and stared at Ryan, his eyes taking on that wild look that Ryan had only seen once or twice before. It scared him that he was beginning to see it more often. “I killed him. And no, it wasn’t in self-defense.”

Ryan sighed, shaking his head. “Mike, this has to stop right here and right now. You’re not thinking clearly.”

“I’m fine,” Mike snapped.

“No, you’re not,” Ryan almost shouted, as if the volume of his voice could make Mike understand. “Your actions have consequences, you know.”

Mike sneered at him. “So what, are you going to turn me in now?”

Ryan paused, taking a good look at the man sitting next to him. The Mike in that passenger seat was not the Mike that he knew and it was terrifying. Ryan narrowed his eyes at him before responding. “Fuck you. You know that’s not what I meant.” Ryan rubbed his eyes, suddenly exhausted. “Look, just don’t do anything stupid in the foreseeable future. We’ll figure this out tomorrow. We both need sleep. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Ryan didn’t wait for Mike to respond and suddenly put the car into gear, driving away from the scene. He turned on the radio for good measure. He didn’t think his brain could handle anymore conversation tonight.

***

When Mike returned to his hotel room that night he went straight to the bathroom and threw up.

His hands shook as he tried to clutch the toilet bowl, adrenaline still coursing through his veins.

He had killed – no, murdered – two men in cold blood. He had killed before but he had always been defending himself or someone else. This was very different and at that moment it all felt very real. He had thought that killing Luke would have given him some relief from the rage that had been burning in his belly for days now but he only felt a stronger desire to kill Lily Gray.

And then there was Ryan. He had lied to Ryan about Claire and now the cat was out of the bag. _Oh God_ – Mike retched again at the memory of Ryan’s face as he watched Claire walk into his apartment. As he realized Mike’s betrayal. For reasons that Mike was reluctant to address, the haunted look on Ryan’s face hurt more than anything else. Ryan had trusted him and now he wasn’t sure where they stood.

Mike grabbed some toilet paper and wiped his mouth, throwing it in the toilet bowl. He stood up, flushing the toilet and walking somewhat shakily over to the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror as he leaned on the counter.

His face was long and ragged. His hair was a mess. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He looked like he had been through hell and back.

Mike reached forward, turning on the tap and washing his hands. He found his toothbrush on the counter and brushed his teeth, avoiding his face in the mirror and keeping his eyes on the sink.

He walked out of the bathroom, absently taking the phone out of his pocket. As he glanced at his phone all of a sudden he froze, remembering the information that he had gotten from Luke only hours before. He could call Lily right now. He was sure that it would only take moments to pull up her number.

A wave of exhaustion hit him and he reluctantly dismissed the idea. It was the middle of the night. And if he called Lily now, she would try to trace his phone immediately and he didn’t know when the next time was that he would be able to sleep. As much as he wanted his revenge, he also admitted that to get it he needed sleep.

He pulled his clothes off haphazardly and almost fell into the bed. As he lay waiting to fall asleep, the last thought that drifted through his mind was of Ryan with Claire.

***

All things considered, Mike felt pretty good the next morning. He had gotten a good amount of sleep but had still managed to rise early enough that he had showered and was ready to go by 10am.

He wasn’t quite sure how Ryan would proceed. He could see Ryan wanting to shut him out now with the whole fallout from Claire. Which Mike supposed suited him just fine. He felt a pang in his stomach as he thought about it but he pushed it away. He had to focus on Lily Gray now.

It was almost too easy to pull up the ad on the _Baltimore Gazette_ , just as Luke had described. Mike stared at his phone in disbelief. It was incredible how crafty these people were. The FBI had people combing the internet trying to find any trace of these people and there it was, right in front of him.

Mike felt butterflies in his stomach as his wrote the number down on the hotel notepad. This was it. He was finally going to get his revenge. He started to dial the number and –

Mike almost flew out of his seat as there was a knock on the door.

The young FBI agent swore under his breath and ran a hand through his hair. He shut his phone off before going over to the door and looking through the peep hole. He recognized Max standing outside his door, moving to unlock and then open it for her.

“Hey,” he greeted her.

Max looked him up and down, nodding her head in apparent approval before returning the greeting. “Hey. You ready?”

Mike raised his eyebrow at her. “Ready for what?”

She furrowed her eyebrows in response. “Ready to head over to Ryan’s. Didn’t he text you?”

He sighed, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against the edge of the open door. “No. Definitely not.”

“Something happened.” Mike remained silent at Max’s implied question, not wanting to answer. Once he told Max, he wasn’t sure what she would think and he wasn’t very keen to find out considering how Ryan had reacted last night.

“Okay, seriously, what happened?” Max prompted him.

Mike opened his eyes and looked at Max with reluctance. “Claire is alive.”

Max stared at him, her expression unchanging. For a moment Mike thought that she hadn’t heard him until finally she said, “Wait, what?”

“Claire is alive,” Mike repeated. “She’s been in witness protection and I –” Mike’s voice cracked so he stopped to compose himself before continuing. “I knew about it. And I lied to him.” Mike looked away from Max, unable to hold her gaze any longer. “I’m sure that he doesn’t want to see me.”

He could feel Max studying him as she considered this new information. Her silence was beginning to unnerve him when finally Max spoke. “I’m sure you were just trying to protect Claire. Let’s be real, Ryan doesn’t exactly think clearly when it comes to her.” She paused. “I assume he didn’t take it well?”

Mike felt a weight lift from his shoulders at her response. He was relieved that at least she understood it. He hoped that maybe there was a chance that Ryan would eventually understand it too.

“Actually, in hindsight he took it swimmingly. Given our recent history I was at least expecting him to break my nose,” he replied darkly, before realizing that he probably shouldn’t be mentioning any sort of ‘recent history’ with Ryan to his niece.

Max must have been preoccupied with her own thoughts because she simply winced before responding, “Ouch. That bad, huh?”

Mike was glad that she didn’t ask what he had meant. He didn’t want to get into it with her. He remained silent, watching as Max pulled out her phone to check the time before putting it back in her coat pocket. She appeared to be going back and forth about something and after a moment, she seemed to make up her mind.

“Look, you should just come with me. I’m not sure if you’ve turned on the news today but Carrie Cooke just got attacked again. I’m sure that Joe’s followers gave her another message and Ryan sounded ready to move. He’ll need your help, whether he likes it or not.”

Mike hesitated. He agreed with Max but he also didn’t want to upset Ryan anymore than he already had by showing up uninvited. And he was itching to call Lily now that he had her number.

“Hey.” Max reached forward, putting her hand on his arm and giving it a reassuring squeeze, shaking him out of his own thoughts. “It’ll be fine, I swear.” She gave him a small smile, which Mike returned.

He nodded. Max was right. Ryan would need his help, whether he wanted it or not. Lily would have to wait.

“Alright. Let me just get my jacket. I’ll be right back.” Max returned the nod and stepped back as Mike went back inside his hotel room to retrieve his coat.

He felt a wave of frustration crash over him and he tightly gripped the back of the chair with his jacket on it before letting out a breath and picking up his coat. A swirl of emotions tugged at him. He had no idea what was going on between him and Ryan. He only knew that the way that Ryan had looked at Claire had made him sick. But he should have known that Claire would never follow his advice to go back to witness protection and let them deal with Joe – she was much too impulsive. Just like Ryan.

He was not looking forward to this.

***

“I wanted to tell you.”

“I got it, Mike. We’re good.”

Ryan ignored Mike’s disbelieving look, continuing to drive to Connecticut in the hopes of saving Preston Tanner from whatever Joe had cooked up next. Truth be told, he was only mildly pissed that Mike had withheld the information about Claire. He wasn’t happy about it but he understood why Mike had done it. But Ryan was also still struggling with everything that had happened with Mike the night before.

He was terrified for Mike. He had followed Ryan over the edge and Ryan didn’t know how to fix it. And they had had sex together – twice now – and Ryan wasn’t sure what that meant. And really, finding out that Claire was alive was just the last straw. Because now he wasn’t sure what that meant either.

Claire was the love of his life. Now that he knew that she was alive his choice should be simple. Scratch that, there shouldn’t _be_ a choice. But Mike had gotten under his skin and ever since that first time, Ryan couldn’t get him out of his head. Maybe it was fucked up considering everything that had happened but Ryan was pretty sure that he was starting to have feelings for the kid.

Ryan debated letting the subject drop but they still had a long way to go before they reached the college.

“Listen, about last night –”

“Ryan, I’m sorry. You didn’t have to cover for me. You should have just told them the truth. You didn’t see anything,” Mike said, sounding contrite.

Ryan paused. “It’s fine. I owe you one anyway. But that’s not what I meant.”

Silence filled the car again as Mike looked over and stared at Ryan intently, waiting for him to continue.

“What the hell is going on with us?”

Mike raised his eyebrows. “That’s a loaded question. You’re going to have to be more specific.”

Ryan almost felt himself at a loss for words. He didn’t even know how to explain it. “Us. This – _thing_ – with us. We – at my apartment – and then – last night,” he finished lamely. He glanced over at Mike, who looked mildly amused at Ryan’s explanation.

“We had sex, Ryan. Don’t worry about it. You owed me one, remember?”

Ryan ignored Mike’s dark joke and tried to push on with the conversation. “Was that all it was? Just sex?”

“I don’t know, Ryan. You tell me. You’re the one who’s having sex with two people and in love with a third,” Mike said flippantly.

As soon as Ryan digested the words, he was furious. “That’s not fair. I’m not the one who started this, you know! I’m not the one who had all the facts here. If I had known that Claire was alive, I wouldn’t have –” He stopped himself, immediately regretting his words.

“Right. Exactly. And that’s why it was just sex and nothing else.” Ryan could see Mike look away, closing himself off.

Ryan took a deep breath. “Mike. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” He sighed. “I’m not exactly the poster boy for Communicator of the Year, okay? I pretty much suck at this. I just… I care about you and I don’t know what that means. In terms of us and in light of everything that’s happened. With us, with Claire.”

Ryan had run out of explanations, of anything else to say. Instead, he reflected on what he had just said and immediately felt like an idiot. Just as he was about to tell Mike to disregard his words, he heard Mike start to respond.

“Ryan…” Mike huffed out a bitter laugh. “I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been in love with you for a while now. And you’re right. I’m the one who started this whole thing, even with all the facts. And I know what it means now that Claire is back. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. Look, I don’t even know…” Ryan trailed off, Mike’s statement finally registering in his head. He gripped the steering wheel tighter, wishing that they weren’t having this conversation in a moving vehicle. He shook his head as if to shake away cobwebs, watching the road and trying not to panic. “You what?”

He heard Mike take a deep breath. At least Ryan wasn’t the only person having a hard time with this conversation. “I love you, Ryan,” Mike said quietly. “And I know that you love Claire. It’s okay, really.”

Ryan stared out the windshield, continuing to drive and trying to find the right words with which to reply. He quickly gave up trying to respond to Mike’s declaration of love and focused on Claire instead. “Mike, I don’t even know why she came back,” he said softly. “I do love her – or I did. But… she came back because of Joe. Not because of me.”

“Ryan –”

“Look,” Ryan said emphatically, cutting off whatever Mike had been going to say. “Let’s talk about this later. After I talk to Claire about how she feels and after I figure out how I feel, because I really have no idea right now.” He gave Mike a look. “And the last thing I need is for _you_ to try and convince me that I’m in love with her again. That’s fucked up, even for me.”

As he settled in for the rest of the drive to Connecticut, he saw Mike smirk out of the corner of his eye and he smiled.

***

Ryan walked down the stairs of the fraternity house with Clarke, trying not to get in the way of all of the commotion on the first floor. He looked around, a bad feeling settling in his stomach. Ryan had waited a second too long and it was Mike who had taken off after Preston Tanner. Mike was becoming more erratic and unpredictable every day and it made Ryan uneasy.

“I thought Weston was with you.”

“Yeah, he’s around here somewhere. I’ll get him,” Ryan lied. He was almost certain that Mike had taken his car in an attempt to rescue the preacher’s son or else he would have turned up again already. And he wasn’t willing to alert the FBI until he could confirm that Mike was safe first.

He watched Clarke nod his head almost absentmindedly as another FBI agent came up to him with some new information about the crime scene. Ryan took advantage of Clarke’s distraction and ducked over to the front of the house, which was deceivingly quiet. He reached for the phone in his pocket, which coincidentally started vibrating in his hand. As he pulled the ringing phone out of his pocket he saw the name ‘Max Hardy’ flash across the screen.

“Hey Max,” Ryan said into the phone. For a moment, there was silence, which Ryan thought was odd, until –

“Hello, Ryan.”

Ryan felt his blood run cold.

“Lily Gray,” he responded after a second, his voice suddenly choked with fear. “Where’s Max?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Ryan. She’s safe and sound for the time being. What I find more interesting, however, is the fact that Claire Matthews was in your apartment when she’s supposed to be dead.”

Ryan felt like he couldn’t breathe. Lily Gray had kidnapped two of the most important people in the world to him.

“If you hurt them –”

“If I hurt them? What if I kill them, Ryan? Like you killed my son?” Ryan could hear the hysteria in Lily’s voice. He heard her take a breath to compose herself before she continued. “But don’t worry. I wouldn’t hurt a hair on either of their pretty heads… Until you get here, of course. I want to watch you suffer. I want to watch your face when I kill them.”

All of a sudden Ryan was incensed. “Did Joe authorize this? I want to talk to Joe.”

He heard Lily let out a surprised laugh. “Joe? Don’t you know?” He heard Lily pause as if to let Ryan speak. His mind wildly ran through possibilities but he couldn’t think of what Lily would expect him to know about her and Joe. “Joe abandoned me, Ryan. After all the work that we put in to honor his genius and he abandoned me. But don’t worry. You’ll be seeing Joe very soon. I’ll be sending you a text message with my address. Come alone if you want to see Max or Claire alive again.”

He heard the phone beep and he looked at his phone to confirm that Lily had ended the call. Ryan looked around but no one seemed to be paying any attention to him. His adrenaline was pumping, half in fear and half in rage. He felt his phone vibrate again as he received the text message from Lily with her address and a picture of Max and Claire, both of them tied up and gagged but seemingly unharmed. Ryan was trying to think fast as he dialed Mike’s number. After two rings he heard Mike pick up.

“Ryan,” he heard Mike say in way of a greeting.

“Hey, where are you?” Ryan hoped that he had actually spoken. He felt dizzy with anxiety.

“Ryan? What’s wrong?”

“Where are you?” Ryan repeated, his voice hard. He heard Mike pause before he answered.

“I’m following them. They got the preacher’s son.”

“Following them to Joe. Who’s not working with Lily.” Ryan was thinking aloud at this point, still trying to formulate a plan that would actually work and keep everyone that he cared about alive.

“Ryan? What are you –?”

“Lily has Max and Claire.” Ryan heard Mike sharply inhale. “She thinks that I killed Luke and she wants revenge. She texted me her address and I’m to come alone if I want to see them alive.”

“Ryan, I’m so sorry –”

“Save it for later. We need to figure out how to keep them alive first. Why would Joe abandon Lily? I thought Joe would appreciate the flattery.”

It was as if Ryan could hear the gears turning in Mike’s head through the phone. “There’s bad blood between Joe and Lily now? Joe wasn’t interested in her clan of psychos.”

Ryan thought for a moment. “That girl that I found in Lily’s house, she’d been stabbed. She must have been one of Lily’s.”

Ryan could hear Mike putting together the pieces for him. “You think that Joe will want to help take down Lily.”

“At the very least, I think that Joe would want to kill Claire himself after what happened with Molly. Or be the director behind the chaos. If he finds out that Claire is alive and that Lily is planning to kill her, I don’t think there’s any way that he’ll be able to resist. Claire is his weakness. And he’s never been one to give up control that easily.” Ryan paused as the full weight of what he was asking Mike to do sunk in. “It should be me doing this. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“Personally, I think coercing a serial killer into helping us kill another serial killer is poetic justice, don’t you?”

“Mike, I’m serious.”

“And so am I.” He heard Mike pause. “This is my fault, Ryan. Don’t worry about me. I think Joe and I will get along just fine.” His voice had a dark edge to it. “Send me that text. Once I get the address, I’ll get rid of my phone, go off the grid so the FBI can’t follow me. And Ryan?”

“Yeah?”

“If something happens… If you need to stall for time… I’ll text you back Lily Gray’s phone number.”

“What?” Ryan was floored. He was sure that he had misheard him.

“I got it from Luke,” Mike answered shortly. “I was going to use it to find her, but… looks like she found us first. Take care of yourself, Ryan.”

Ryan hesitated, trying to think of what to say in response, when he heard Mike disconnect the call.


End file.
